While Nigerian are still savouring the news that the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries are back on their feet churning out much needed petroleum products, the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemicals Company (KRPC) on Friday said it has started releasing two million litres of petrol into the market daily, as it has resumed partial production.
The Managing Director of the company, Saidu Muhammed said this in Kaduna.
He said that the company, which was undergoing rehabilitation, would raise its production output to five million litres of petrol daily by March 2016.
Muhammed disclosed that two of the company’s production lines had been rehabilitated, thereby facilitating the refining of about 60,000 barrels of crude per day. He assured that the KRPC’s production level would hit 90 per cent by the second quarter of 2016.
The company has an installed production capacity of 110,000 barrels of crude per day. Muhammed said rehabilitation work on the remaining two production lines of the company would be completed by March 2016.
He, however, urged the Federal Government to safeguard the oil pipeline from Warri to Kaduna from activities of vandals in order to sustain production.
According to him, vandalism remained a major threat to smooth transportation of crude to the refinery.
Muhammed, therefore, advised the Federal Government to deploy military personnel to provide maximum security to pipelines in the area.
The facility upgrade of the refinery, started in October 2014, was to cover 18-months.
The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) had announced that the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries had resumed full production after the phased rehabilitation.
Meanwhile, the KRPC boss said the resumption of production would open employment opportunities in both formal and the informal sectors as well as address the lingering fuel scarcity in the northern region.
Muhammed explained that thousands of transporters would resume lifting of the product, thereby providing employment to truck drivers and other stakeholders.
According to him, the development will also boost other businesses including the banking sector.
By Pita Ochai
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